Was the 1980s a good era of music, or a bad era of music?

Discuss now.

if it wasn't for loverboy, modern music would have been doomed

After you!

I say it was, because you had good pop songs, black music still had excellent love & dance music. You had the great U.K. bands with one hit wonders.
All types of heavy metal, that underground alternative music that they played on collage stations.
And rap was hardly played on the radio.
Only country music was without it's good music as the 21st century.

[QUOTE=wm lopez]And rap was hardly played on the radio.

Ah the good old days

Back to the question...YYYEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS...

Hair metal bands were a prominent part of the 80's, therefore no it wasn't the best decade

Depeche Mode
The Cure
Duran Duran
Culture Club
Joy Division
Adam Ant
Madonna
Concrete Blondes

Ah...The 80's..

Johnny Cash
Hank Williams
Merle Haggard
Willie Nelson

I think the 20th century did fine.

and the 80's were far from the best

No Beatles, No Zeppelin, Kiss is walking around with no make up... Just Aqua Net...enough to fill an ocean

I agree with Elvis Costello, who called the 80's "the decade that music forgot."

In my lifetime:

1.60's(kinda cheating there since i was born in Dec of 69 )
2.70's
3.90's
4.80's
5.00's(so far)

IMO, the sixties are highly overrated.

Yes.

I put the 60's 1st just barely ahead of the 70's due to:

The Beatles-Rubber Soul,Revolver,Sgt Peppers,White Album,Abbey Road
Bob Dylan-Freewheelin',Highway 61,Blonde on Blonde
Jimi Hendrix-Electric Ladyland,Are You Experienced
Velvet Underground-VU & Nico,White Light/White Heat
Led Zeppelin-1
Cream-Disraeli Gears
The Who-Sell Out,Tommy
Rolling Stones-Let it Bleed

The eighties easily equal any other decade for music. Any decade that produces London Calling, Daydream Nation, Reign in Blood, Tim Purple Rain, Born in the USA, Night Nurse etc, etc, etc can't be all bad.

Hard to top a list like that. 60's for me, then 90's.

What's amazing about the 80s is that for every band that sucked there was one that was amazing. I don't think there has been such a balance in music ever.

The sixties and seventies are seriously overrated because only the good stuff has been remembered. Both decades had just as much crap as the 90s or current decade. "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I got Love in My Tummy" or "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" anyone?

60s
80s
90s
70s
00s

Its just that the bands that truly sucked...have been forgotten. Thinking further back, the more we forget, hence the 60's seems almost mythic while the 90's and today seem turd-tastic.

70's great
80's Was great at the time but now that I look back at it, the decade sucked.
90's Early 90's were good but as the decade move on it started going downhill.
00's Super doooper sucky.

Thats pretty much the best lolol

Let's not forget:

The Smiths
New Order
Tears For Fears
The English Beat
U2
The Police
The Go-Go's
INXS
Squeeze
The Pretenders
The Human League
Simple Minds

While I'm not sure the 80's was the best decade for music, it sure had a lot of fun music/bands.

80's music puts me in the happiest mood. The majority of it is bouncy and fun, without being annoying.

I can't really answer if it's the best. Basically what Daytripper said at the end of his post.

...

Easily the best "80's" LP released in the 70's

If the percentage of non-suckage were anything like that high, it would be truly amazing. I think the rule of thumb is 10% on average is worth remembering.

When I 1st read this thread, my initial responce was that the 80's truly sucked (hairbands, & the rest of the crap that dominated the playlists of corporate radio/MTV), but there was a lot of great music...REM, Pogues & Los Lobos (just to mention a few that haven't been mentioned thus far) too.

The crap (Yummy, Yummy, Yummy & Me & U & a dog named boo) still get plenty of airplay on am radio, whereas superb stuff like Love, Moby Grape & The Stooges never got any to begin with & (that hasn't changed) the average consumer still wouldn't be able to ID this music. Meanwhile, a lot of the great stuff gets hit with shrinkage as 'Classic Rock' stations drift their definition of Classic Rock to more desireable demographics.

When was Nick Drake resurrected, late 90's? The 60's were incomparably great, mainly because the record/broadcast industry didn't have as much control, & the bands were 1st in line when it came to re-interpreting the best decades, the 20's & 30's.

My Opinion of course,
Tim

Largely terrible IMO.

Some good stuff like U2, Bad Religion and other punk bands etc. But I hate the hair bands, and the Depeche Mode type groups and the pop music of the era, and that was the bulk of what was coming out in the 1980s in the mainstream.